Right Here Waiting
by butterfly collective
Summary: Matt and C.J. ponder what they read into their kiss at the end of "Deadly Fashions" in Season One. Just borrowing the characters for fun, not for profit.


Oooh a blurb came forth…hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading!

* * *

C.J. had shaken her head as she sat there on the grass watching him walk away from her. Right after he had brushed his lips against her own and kissed her, taking her breath with him.

That action on his part hadn't been expected but it sure had been nice. They had been sitting together near the ranch house after she had helped him win the frog jumping contest pitting Rupert, his blue-blooded contender against Bo and Lamar's fearsome champion. Matt had been down in the dumps after his final breakup with his college sweetheart Christina or Squeaky as he called her to his Rooster. C.J. hadn't bothered to figure out the story behind the inane nicknames Matt and his ex used in private conversation. After all, she had been at a different university a thousand miles away during the year of their great romance.

So she stuck to helping him with his frog problem instead. They had just successfully solved the deadly fashion case and after one final swan song by horseback ride with Christina, Matt had returned back alone on his horse and just headed to the barn to spend some time alone for a while. C.J. had given him plenty of space to mourn his loss with his horse to keep him company. She had plans of her own and that meant gussying up her own pet frog Hildegard with a nice pink bow and getting acquainted with the reluctant Rupert.

She knew that bull frogs were like men. Of course the frog jumping expert who Murray consulted said that frogs only jumped towards food and away from predators. But she had just shaken her head at Murray's advice and had said that a frog would also jump as quickly as would a man for the attentions of the right female.

It became clear quickly enough that for Rupert, that was Hildegard as soon as she introduced the two of them while Matt kicked back with a couple of beers talking chili and horses with Bo and Lamar. She had already begun to put her master plan in action.

"Now Rupert, if you want to get together with my Hildegard, you'll get your chance but you're going to have to work for it," she said, stroking the frog's moist bumpy skin. The expression he gave back to her provided her with some understanding behind Matt's assertion that his frog was the great love of his life.

That might be, but you can't cuddle up with a frog. No, Matt needed a woman for that and Christina had left the building in her prim riding outfit with not a hair out of place on her fancy steed returning back to her prince charming, a national senator. Naturally after Matt had saved her career and her reputation first, without asking for anything in return but that was how it had always been between them. When Matt sobered up from his broken heart, he might figure that out.

Then he'd take out his infamous black book and run his finger down the page, reaching for his cell phone. Her best friend never stayed out of action for long, even while nursing a broken heart. A blonde would probably be next on his list because he would not want any reminder of the woman he had lost again.

That's how it was supposed to be, that's how it had always been when he had come to the end of a romance and she didn't think he had even gotten much action this time around with the globetrotting model.

So when he kissed her like that, it hit her completely from left field. Not that she complained, because she had always known he would kiss in a way that would make a woman sing. And it had only taken her a split second to forget about the frogs, Bo, Lamar and just about anything else. Everything but him, the way his mouth felt against her own, her heart beat quickening and for what might happen next.

But then he pulled away from her and when she saw that damn eyebrow of his wiggle, she knew he had been joking. Okay, so she had just used the corniest line that had ever left her mouth about having to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince and he had taken her up on her less than subtle invitation. He then kissed her enough to make her insides tingle down to her toes and then he backed away, slipping back into his role as her best friend.

She had recovered from the experience that clearly hadn't meant as much to him as it did to her and then she sighed when he turned his head to look at how his two buddies had reacted to their kiss. But they had been still squabbling over whether or not C.J. had used underhanded methods to help Matt win the frog jumping contest.

"Do you think they'll ever get over it," she asked.

"They'll settle it over a couple of beers," he said, "maybe a six pack."

He got up on his feet, dusted off his pants and headed back to the ranch house. The taste of her kiss still on his lips and the memory, playing over in his mind.

* * *

C.J. looked at the sauce that Mama had placed on the stove. The pasta laid draining nearby and the clattering of dishes filled the kitchen.

"Ay, don't drop that plate," Mama said, "put the pizza dough over there."

C.J. marveled at how efficiently the restaurant owner ran her kitchen, giving orders to her employees but still doing a lot of the food preparation. But although Mama loved her cooking, her mind today remained on other things.

Like the two men not eating their freshly prepared meals in the dining room.

"My son…he's a fading away," she lamented, "They come here to eat and all they do is talk, talk, talk…"

C.J. peeked out the doorway and saw both Matt and Vince sitting there, doing just that talking most likely about the most recent case that had set them on a collision course. Although close friends, their respective vocations often put them on different sides of a case at least at first until they figured out they were both after the same thing.

"That's not all that Houston can do…"

Mama smiled at her.

"What's behind that smile on your face?"

"Oh it's this beautiful day…"

Mama shot her a knowing look.

"Houston looked happy too," she said, "But this Christina girl she left no?"

C.J. nodded.

"She went back to her fiancée," she said, "He was a little sad about that but we tried to cheer him up at the ranch by reuniting him with his greatest love."

Mama looked confused.

"Greatest love…another woman already?"

"No Mama, his frog Rupert," C.J. said, "You see his frog wasn't very happy either and didn't want to jump until I introduced him to Hildegard and they fell in love and Rupert won the jumping contest."

"I see…I think."

"Rupert had his Hildegard and I…Houston…we kissed."

Mama's eyes widened.

"Ohhhhh," she said, "I do see…and now you…he…"

C.J. shook her head.

"No, we're still just friends," she said, "It didn't really mean anything."

Mama shook her head and sighed.

"It didn't mean anything," she said, "What is wrong with you kids these days? Back in my day, a kiss was only done by a woman with someone she loved."

"Things have changed and Houston and I…we do love each other…as friends…but not more than that. Our friendship means too much."

Mama looked carefully at her as she stirred her sauce, adding a sprinkle of spice now and then.

"Is that what you want?"

C.J. shrugged.

"Mostly yes, but sometimes…I wonder what it would be like if we did get together but he loves his single life too much anyway. Christina's out of his mind already and he's dating someone named…Dana."

Mama nodded.

"I see…to forget the love that he lost he's already trying to move on," she said, waving her hand, "but it never works well."

C.J. knew that Matt still smarted from Christina's departure but he had gotten back in the swing of things, going to galas and hitting nightclubs with his roster of women. He and C.J. had been back in their companionable relationship working together on cases through their investigative agency and putting that kiss they shared behind them.

She envied him in the ease he did just that in comparison to how it had been for her. When she looked at him, she envisioned him wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her close for more kissing. She imagined her own hands running through his soft hair, their bodies pressed together. Dancing together or doing other things that made her blood rush, her skin tingle. But before she went too far in her thoughts she remembered how he had joked about it and that had the effect of ice cold water splashed in her face.

"It seems to work quite well for him Mama."

And she knew that it did, Matt could move on from busted love affairs and a broken heart or two and pick up his more casual relationship style where he had left it. Almost as if he had never been away, he appeared to slip into that role so easily. While she had difficulty putting that kiss they had shared which had been casual on his part certainly behind her and there were times she wanted so much more.

Mama must have seen something on her face just then because she reached over and rubbed C.J.'s back in a comforting manner without saying anything.

* * *

Matt and C.J. sat together in a car, one of many in his impressive fleet, not saying much to each other. Their eyes focused on a boat inside the marina, where a sedan remained parked. A couple of hours earlier a man had left it purportedly for a meeting inside the boat. But it had remained fairly quiet since then.

Matt had focused on watching the boat with some binoculars while C.J. had simply kept her eyes peeled on the parking slip where the sedan sat waiting for its driver to return. He had given her some freshly brewed coffee from a nearby stand and she had sipped it thoughtfully while he watched her. She had dressed in a rush in the morning just as he had, wearing faded jeans, an even more faded jersey and her dark hair beneath a Houston Astros baseball cap. Her lips had curved into a smile at one of his early morning attempts at humor and a memory flashed through him of how it had felt to kiss those lips. How soft and pliant they had been, how the honeysuckle scent from her shampoo had sent his heart racing. He had pulled away from her and then joked about it, to cover himself until his vital signs returned to normal.

But he had watched her blink her eyes afterward and seen something vulnerable there before she read his own face. Then he had seen on hers a flash of hurt that had passed so quickly to be overwhelmed by her careful smile.

And then after checking in with the other two guys there like it was some macho thing, he had gotten up and walked away.

She hadn't mentioned the kiss at all since and neither had he, they both had returned to their normal day to day routine of handling their growing caseload at Houston Investigations. Spending hours gathering background information on clients and suspects and investigating everything from missing people to missing jewelry with a murder or two in between to keep them on their toes. But gazing at her now only inches between them inside a car on a beautiful morning…

"The sun sure looks pretty casting its light on the water," C.J .said, "See how the water sparkles."

He looked out and saw what she saw. The impressive cast of boats bobbed on the water above the incoming tides.

"I don't see much action going on here," he said, "I wonder if they snuck out the back."

"Houston…I think they would have to come to the front to get in the car," she pointed out, "besides, you've had your eyes peeled on them the entire time and so have I."

Well that might be true, but his mind had been idling on some other thoughts even when his eyes had been dutifully on the mark. She just looked at him casually, clearly forgetting what had happened between him over a couple of frogs on his ranch while he still stumbled over that memory when he least expected it. He had wondered what it would have felt like to pull her closer to him, to run his hands in her thick mane of hair and to not let go so quickly.

But she clearly looked at him and saw the boy who had grown up alongside her into a man. The one who had teased her affectionately when they both had been younger and just the other day on the ranch after he had kissed her. Not as someone who she could find more than their friendship in a kiss though of course he had hardly helped her in that with his own behavior. But something, foolishness perhaps or maybe something deeper dug at him to ask her a question during this moment of quietness between them. All hell could break loose any moment as it could with any stakeout but for now...

"C.J. about…"

She looked at him puzzled, her eyes sparkling.

"What's up Houston," she said, "Look, I know that you were supposed to go to Santa Barbara with Misty…"

"Tiffani…"

"Okay whoever," she said, "but we'll be all done here and you'll have plenty of time to go home and get ready to catch Highway 1 before the traffic really starts to hit."

"Yeah well I'm pretty sure the weekend's off…"

She shrugged.

"Then how about next weekend," C.J. said, "I can handle anything that comes up then…maybe Pam…"

He looked at her oddly.

"C.J. I can handle my own scheduling," he said, "and my own social life."

She looked away and he wondered if he hurt her feelings.

"I know Houston," she said, "but I also know how our careers can run rampant on our relationships."

"I don't have a relationship," he said, "It's just a weekend trip."

She nodded.

"Ah yeah, sorry I just thought…"

She looked at her hands, her hair spilling over to hide her face.

"But I can still handle everything so you can go on your weekend trip."

She appeared resolute about that and he didn't know what drove it. There were still things about her he didn't know let alone understand and kissing her that day hadn't really let him inside. Maybe for a split second but his joking had stopped that in its tracks. It had stopped him from taking some steps down a new path that had opened up its beauty for him but what had stopped him had been his own fears not hers. A path which could have led their relationship in a new direction, intoxicating yet scary at the same time. Emotions that he hadn't been used to because he felt the need to control his own feelings including with women. A difficult battle with her and for one moment...he fought his own tide but he hadn't said anything beyond his joke.

And that moment had passed.

She smiled at him then and he thought about asking her a question that lived in a hidden part of himself and if sensing something within him in invitation, she nodded slightly. And she waited again for him to speak.

But then something moved in front of him and he instinctively grabbed his gun and left the car to chase the man who had started running when he saw them both. C.J. watched him move supply out of the car and take off in a sprint. She knew he would catch him, because mostly he did. So she shook her head slightly at the ease which he slipped into that identity and picked up the phone to call Vince.


End file.
